One of the most thrilling movie epics of all time, SEVEN SAMURAI (Shichinin no samurai) tells the story of a sixteenth-century village whose desperate inhabitants hire the eponymous warriors to protect them from invading bandits.
This three-hour ride from Akira…

This riveting psychological thriller that investigates the nature of truth and the meaning of justice is widely considered one of the greatest films ever made.
Four people give different accounts of a man's murder and the rape of his wife,…

Oh Dae-su is an ordinary Seoul businessman with a wife and young daughter who, after a drunken night on the town, is locked up in a strange, private "prison" for 15 years. No one tells him why he's there or…

Hong Kong, 1962: Chow Mo-wan (Tony Leung Chiu-wai) and Su Li-zhen (Maggie Cheung Man-yuk) move into neighboring apartments on the same day. Their encounters are formal and polite--until a discovery about their spouses creates an intimate bond between them. At…

A profoundly stirring evocation of elemental humanity and universal heartbreak, TOKYO STORY is the crowning achievement of the unparalleled Yasujiro Ozu.
The film, which follows an aging couple's journey to visit their grown children in bustling postwar Tokyo, surveys the…

From the creators of Ghost in the Shell comes a wonderfully expressive and beautifully hand-drawn animated tale that combines bursts of whimsy and kinetic humor with deeply felt emotion and drama.
The last time Momo saw her father they had…

Considered by some to be Akira Kurosawa's greatest achievement, IKIRU presents the director at his most compassionate--affirming life through an exploration of a man's death.
Takashi Shimura portrays Kanji Watanabe, an aging bureaucrat with stomach cancer forced to strip the…

From visionary director Yasuhiro Yoshiura ( Time of Eve ) comes PATEMA INVERTED, a perspective-twisting sci-fi adventure about two kids separated by opposite gravities.
Patema lives in an underground world of tunnels, the long-abandoned ruins of a giant industrial complex.…

The birthplace of classic anime films such as Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke , Studio Ghibli occupies a near legendary position in film history. Granted unfettered access to the notoriously insular studio, this revealing documentary follows the three…

The documentary-like story of a yellow Labrador Retriever guide dog for the blind named Quill. We follow Quill from the litter, his selection to become a guide, his life with a foster family until his first birthday, followed by highly…

"Quite simply one of the greatest of filmmakers," said Jean-Luc Godard of Kenji Mizoguchi. And UGETSU, a ghost story like no other, is surely the Japanese director's supreme achievement.
Derived from stories by Akinari Ueda and Guy de Maupassant, this…

With the release in 1955 of Satyajit Ray's debut film, an eloquent and important new cinematic voice made itself heard all over the world. A depiction of rural Bengali life in a style inspired by Italian neorealism, PANTHER PANCHALI's naturalistic…

A powerful affirmation of the immersive potential of cinema. HAPPY HOUR is a slow-burning epic chronicling the emotional journey of four thirty-something women in the misty seaside city of Kobe. As they navigate the unsteady currents of their work, domestic,…

With an intergalactic cast of thousands, Koji Masunari's colorfully explosive debut feature sets a new high for visual spectacle and sheer inventiveness of character design - in what has to be one of the most gleefully surreal depictions of alien…

A sadistic Daimyo (feudal lord) rapes a woman and murders both her and her husband, the matter is quickly hushed up. Not only will there be no punishment, but because the Daimyo is the Shogun's younger brother, he will soon…

The incomparable Toshiro Mifune stars in Akira Kurosawa's visually stunning and darkly comic YOJIMBO.
To rid a terror-stricken village of corruption, wily masterless samurai Sanjuro turns a range war between two evil clans to his own advantage. Remade twice, by…

Vietnamese revolutionaries led by Ho Chi Minh end nearly a century of French colonial occupation. Vietnam is divided in two. Communists in the North aim to reunify the country, while America supports Diem's untested regime in the South.

Taking us into the heart of the planet's busiest maternity hospital, the viewer is dropped like an unseen outsider into the hospital's stream of activity. At first, the people are strangers. As the film continues, it's absorbingly intimate, rendering the…

The animated prequel to the box office record-breaker Train to Busan , and the latest from director Yeon Sang-ho, SEOUL STATION follows a man sleeping in a train station who becomes a catalyst for the pandemonium in downtown Seoul: a…